CATALYST ROUNDUP!

With all the fuss about these three Catalyst scheme films a few years back here are some points:

None of these titles were particularly good. They certainly weren't new styles of filmmaking or voices discovered. Two titles were derivative of mainstream cinema but done cheaply. The other (Eamon) was just an expansion of a short film. What was interesting were the stripped-back filmmaking techniques but this has been done better with other stuff. So what was the whole point of the Catalyst scheme? I'm not sure. They certainly didn't bring new talented directors to our attention. In fact, I can't see any of the three filmmakers doing anything interesting in the future. The only film that did stand out was Eamon but it was badly made. The other two were a bit naff and resembled straight-to-DVD material from other countries. How did these three films get selected from the others is a mystery. I know the brilliant Snap got rejected by the scheme but maybe it was too expensive? Also, where is the follow up to Catalyst? What's the point in having this scheme and then not building on it? The first three films were a start but there is certainly room for better stuff to get made with this scheme? We should be regularly be producing feature films on these low budgets that get a release to the public.